This Week I Read:
Description From Goodreads:
For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald.
Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother's life.
Combining a passionate, doomed love story, a vivid evocation of life during the war, and a poignant mother/daughter drama, Those Who Save Us is a profound exploration of what we endure to survive and the legacy of shame.
My Thoughts:
I saw this book reviewed last week and it happened to be at the used book store when I went on Saturday. I thought maybe it might be a sign.
All the other Holocaust era books that I have read have been from a Jewish point of view. I loved that this book is told from a German point of view instead of a Jewish point of view.
I like that the book in no way tries to say that what happened in Germany during WW2 was not the fault of the German government. I believe that it was but I also believe that there were good Germans that tried to do the best they could. People seem to forget that they could be killed also for going against the SS and Hitler.
It is great story of survival and just how far a person will go to stay alive and protect a child. It is so worth the read. Even to me who likes all things cleared up in the ending. This one just leaves you with an understanding that sometimes the past is the past and you can't judge someone when you don't know what they have been through.
I am linking up with:
For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald.
Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother's life.
Combining a passionate, doomed love story, a vivid evocation of life during the war, and a poignant mother/daughter drama, Those Who Save Us is a profound exploration of what we endure to survive and the legacy of shame.
My Thoughts:
I saw this book reviewed last week and it happened to be at the used book store when I went on Saturday. I thought maybe it might be a sign.
All the other Holocaust era books that I have read have been from a Jewish point of view. I loved that this book is told from a German point of view instead of a Jewish point of view.
I like that the book in no way tries to say that what happened in Germany during WW2 was not the fault of the German government. I believe that it was but I also believe that there were good Germans that tried to do the best they could. People seem to forget that they could be killed also for going against the SS and Hitler.
It is great story of survival and just how far a person will go to stay alive and protect a child. It is so worth the read. Even to me who likes all things cleared up in the ending. This one just leaves you with an understanding that sometimes the past is the past and you can't judge someone when you don't know what they have been through.
I am linking up with:
